Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Monday, June 11, 2012

Parking a Car!

If you have a little extra parking, I am on the side of getting
rid of it in favor of having some more greenery...Michael King

Well considering the situation in city & our Indian sentiments for the car
not many will be on the side of the international architect! As for us car is
something of most valued possession. There is a good joke about the car that
" If a man is opening door of a car for his wife then either the wife is
new or the car!" Leave apart the joke part but it speaks about the
sentimental possessive value we have for our car. Most of the men especially
Indian men if asked what their dream of a good living is, will include a
good looking wife, a nice home & then a car of his own, that's the dream!
Earlier till 90's it was a status symbol to have a car of your own but come
Maruti & even the common so called middle class person also was able to
think of car of his own. In real terms its' entry of Maruti which changed the
car scenario of our country. Till then to have a car was considered as only for
milliner’s as they only has a space to park it was also a fact. And another
most important but never considered aspect was then the distances weren't too
much to travel & it’s more status base than need base to own a car.

After 90's the face of urban India started to change significantly fast pace
& with entry of many multinational car makers in the market, having a car
was no more just the status symbol for riches but it become a part of our daily
necessity. The Towns became City's & City's changed to Metro's, making
the distances to cover for our daily routines from few meters to many
kilometers. There may be still many Punekars who had never crossed river Mutha
for years as including schools to subji mandai to cinema halls to their work
places all were in radius of 1/2 kilometers which was easily in reach on feet
or at most with cycle! Also the homes were wadas as apartments were yet to
become part of city's sky lines & bungalows were few. So there was no
question of either need of car to move around or having a place to park it. Car
was always an every body's favorite dream but yet people could do without
having it!

As the cities started increasing in size so does the distances started getting
increased & now if we consider the average citizen's required to travel in
a city like Pune then it's nearly 20-30 km per day. This traveling includes
going to office & then carrying children to school & going to shopping
etc. Now the family size has been reduced to two plus two maximum so if on week
end a family wants to go out going together by car has become the simplest &
easiest way. This is outcome of failure of the city civic body to provide a
proper system or infrastructure available for transportation within the city. I
had been to cities like Singapore
with my family & for 80% of the time I was comfortably using public
transport over there which includes Metro as well Buses. Only for 20% of the
time I have to use taxi. And all this without missing any of my timings to
reach the destinations we were going. This I can’t even try in my own city
& here is where our today's topic comes in lime light i.e. is parking! Here I recall my most favorite quote from the movie Spider Man; “With great powers come along great responsibilities"!
Similarly if car is power to an individual to reach at his destination as well
to show of his status symbol then the parking of that car is the responsibility
he has to carry along!

Here is where major crux comes in picture i.e. whose responsibility is to
create a space for car parking? Recently there was a news which surprisingly
went un-noticed by many; it was an order or directive issued by Hon. Home
Minister of the State for taking actions about residential society's resident's
car parking outside of their society on road! Well that means all the residents
who owns a car have to park the car within their building premise which is
logically correct but then why one has to buy a car is the question I will ask
in first place! And what about number of Govt establishments whose visitors as
well staff vehicles are parked all along out side of their premise! Even the
PMPML i.e. our public transport system’s buses are parked all night & day
along the roads blocking most part of the road, who is going to take action
about them? Gone are the days where most buildings were with ground floor
residence & no parking place was designed or required by the architects or
even by building by-laws as with due respect to our planners short sightedness
till early 90's car wasn't considered as part of the building & still 60%
buildings don't have adequate car parks in the city as they were build in
pre-car dependence era. The new by-laws demands to have car parking for even a
single bed room flat i.e. 1 bhk & even 2 car parks for 3 bhk flat along
with two wheeler parking & the
developers are building the projects accordingly! As a developer is in business
& he will deliver what customer demands unfortunately with out thinking
about the side effects of the demand. But have we thought at what cost the demand
for parking is being fulfilled? With our need as well greed for status we are
consuming most of the land around & below the complex for creating spaces
for cars! Now we have multilevel car parking which in cases go two to three
floors below the ground. In this process we damage the ground water flows &
damage the biodiversity of many species like snakes to ants which were happily
living below the earth’s surface for years! Many will laugh for such a silly
thought but this is just one aspect of damage getting done because of creating
more & more space for cars. Numbers of trees got cut to give away the space
for drive ways to make the car reach in their parking lots at the same time
lesser & lesser spaces are being made for the new trees in the same process
is also a fact. We have laws for cars as well laws for trees but even a small
kid can tell who wins the war at end!

Then there is a big debate going about a verdict of court that whether
developer can sale the car parking? Issue isn't who can sale what, issue is
every one needs place of his own to park a car is a fact & people are ready
to pay ransom for their love towards their pride possession. In Mumbai the car
parking costs goes over nearly Rs.10 lacs per parking at some places such is
the demand for car park. Ask any person going for buying a home / flat &
tell him that he wont be allotted a car park with the home & see his
reaction & you will get your answer about selling of a car park! People can’t
imagine a home without a car park of their own is a fact & it’s this factor
which is more dangerous for the entire society than just having rights of
selling the car park. Again it's not just car parks but two wheeler car parking
is equally important as their numbers are also alarmingly high. Now a days in a
average home there are two cars & three to two, two wheelers & cycles
too for the school goers. How we are going to meet these demands is the real
challenge & then we say homes are getting costlier! Because in the race of
creating more car parking places we are increasing construction cost also by
building more space for the parking. And at the end have we thought who is
bearing cost of this construction? In the process our whole life style is being
car or private vehicle oriented & the public/civic bodies conveniently
dodge their responsibility by making stringent norms for car parking &
thinks their job is done! It’s not the car parking but the need for the car
requires to be taken care is what we are forgetting!

Only increasing parking norms for new developments is not going to solve the issue,
it’s just passing the buck! If we are thinking just about the cars then this is
bound to be the outcome. Think about entire planning of the city & why
people needs to travel all across the city for smallest of the job?
Decentralization is a word used too cheaply in our society. It has happened in
private segment like most of the generation old outlets of shops have opened
their branches in the suburbs but on many Govt fronts people have to run always
to the head quarter of a Govt establishment is a fact. Even the zonal offices staff
of public bodies or Govt offices has to do that leave apart the common man.
Online documentation of many things like 7/12 extract of electric bills or even
property tax like things if we make it possible in 100% then much of the
traveling will be reduced. Banning parking in front of society roads isn't the
solution but making services available to the people at their work places or
resident is which in end will reduce the need of buying a car which at end will
help in reducing need for the parking places. As when you allow a person to
buy a car by charging all the taxes then you only have to give him
a place to park the same car & not only at his residence but at all those
places where he needs to go by the car may be out of helplessness! As no one
like to park his car on road & neither likes to pay hefty charges for
parking per hour as it’s a big pinch to the pocket in all ready tough survival
with cost of fuel increasing each day!

Here not only the planning authority or the civic bodies but every citizen's
role is equally important in curtailing the number of car parks. We have become
so selfish that we have forgotten things like car pool or to plan our schedule
a bit neatly & try to use public transport at least one day a week! But I can't blame common man totally as looking the way
our rulers are dealing with the public transport issue, God save all the things especially as the quote says the greenery from
parking is what I feel!